Home for the Holidays

Well, it seems there is so much to post about! No, we haven't found a better job for Jonathan yet but are still looking, and we are so grateful for the one he has in the meantime. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Utah with my family - we were supposed to go home on Wednesday but were able to get away a day earlier, so we decided to surprise my family! We showed up on the doorstep on Tuesday night and my Mom was so surprised that she screamed "what??!?" and my sisters all ran to the door screaming, and poor James got a little scared and started to cry, it was sweet and funny all at the same time. We spent a lot of time together and had so much fun, and stayed up way too late playing Wii Music every night. I went with Mom and two of my sisters shopping on Wednesday for new shirts for the whole fam, because we were having family pictures taken on Friday. We had a crazy fun shopping trip and found cute clothes for everyone, including the cutest little shoes for James!

We had a very yummy Thanksgiving dinner, as always, thanks to Mama. As is Gibbons family tradition, we watched the movie "White Christmas" on Thanksgiving night to start off the Christmas holiday.

(James helped Uncle Josh ask a girl to a dance! It was hilarious!)

On Friday we had family pictures taken and it was so much fun! Our photographer was Ryan Thompson, who also did our wedding photography and who does such an awesome job. The pictures turned out SO cute, and we also got some great pictures of just our little family and some of Jonathan and I that turned out way cute.














Since James' first birthday is this coming Friday (can you believe it?!?) my family had a birthday party for him on Saturday, before we left town on Sunday to come back to Oregon. What a fun party! James had a lot of firsts that day - he had his first pizza (totally liked it!), first chocolate cake (OH man, he just DEVOURED it, it was great), first cows milk (wasn't a fan) and first ice cream (surprisingly didn't like that either). We wore party hats and he opened so many fun presents from my family. He got some fun toys, a cute snowsuit, hat and mittens, and an awesome truck from my parents that he can push and walk with, ride on or pull like a wagon, AND it makes noises. James just LOVED it, he played with it for at least 35 minutes straight. And the funny thing was that all of us just watched him play with it for 35 minutes straight. Whenever it would run into a wall, he was SO determined to turn it around, he would just work so hard at it. It is fun to see his little personality blossoming like crazy. We sure love that kid!









We drove back to Oregon on Sunday and have been having a wonderful time with Jonathan's family. We got back Sunday night to find all the Christmas decorations up and we could see the Christmas tree lights through the front window as we pulled up - James LOVES the Christmas tree, he is just fascinated by the lights and the ornaments!


James has had a very exciting "first" in the past few days - he is now WALKING!! He has taken a few steps before in the past few weeks, but no more than 3 or 4 steps. On Monday night after Jonathan got home, the three of us were playing in the bedroom and James was SO tired, he fussing and crying and was playing with his truck and his toys. He started taking a few steps and was doing pretty well - he took about 13 and we were so excited! So we got out the video camera and tried to get him to do it again, but he was just so fussy. So Jonathan got out his cell phone and started playing James' favorite song on it (Viva la Vida by Coldplay - seriously, James LOVES this song!) and James started walking toward it because he wanted the phone so bad. He was crying almost the whole time he was walking toward it, but he took TWENTY-SIX steps!! It was so exciting! I guess James is officially a toddler now! I can't believe it!

Another first - today we turned James' car seat around so it is forward-facing (two days before his first birthday - close enough, right??) and he just LOVES it! He loves looking out the window and seeing what is going on.

Tonight was the ward Christmas party here and Jonathan's Mom was in charge of it - she has been working SO hard on it for the past few weeks, and it turned out so well! We have had some fun times helping her with costumes and such (oh if only I could upload a few pictures...). It was a Night in Bethlehem and they did it in a really cool old barn. The kids did a nativity scene, complete with real donkeys and other animals (that's what you get in the country! James LOVED the animals!) and they had a whole bunch of booths set up with food and it all looked so authentic. It was fun helping Jonathan's Mom get all ready for it and I ended up making all the signs for the booths and things. Check back for pictures, although our camera was doing some weird things...

So we are doing great! It is so fun to be here with Jonathan's family and it is so fun to see James grow, he is becoming a little boy before our eyes!